Sunflower Montage
by Kathy Bassett
Title
Sunflower Montage
Artist
Kathy Bassett
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Digital Fine Art - Photo Painting -
Description
To warm up a dark corner or grace a sun-lit nook! I have a metal 20" print of this image and it really is striking! To grow best, sunflowers need full sun. They grow best in fertile, moist, well-drained soil with heavy mulch. In commercial planting, seeds are planted 45 cm (1.5 ft.) apart and 2.5 cm (1 in) deep. Sunflower "whole seed" (fruit) are sold as a snack food, raw or after roasting in ovens, with or without salt and/or seasonings added. Sunflowers can be processed into a peanut butter alternative, sunflower butter. In Germany, it is mixed with rye flour to make Sonnenblumenkernbrot (literally: sunflower whole seed bread), which is quite popular in German-speaking Europe. It is also sold as food for birds and can be used directly in cooking and salads. American Indians had multiple uses for sunflowers in the past, such as in bread, medical ointments, dyes and body paints.Sunflower oil, extracted from the seeds, is used for cooking, as a carrier oil and to produce margarine and biodiesel, as it is cheaper than olive oil. A range of sunflower varieties exist with differing fatty acid compositions; some 'high oleic' types contain a higher level of monounsaturated fats in their oil than even olive oil.
Detail of disk florets
The cake remaining after the seeds have been processed for oil is used as a livestock feed. Some recently developed cultivars have drooping heads. These cultivars are less attractive to gardeners growing the flowers as ornamental plants, but appeal to farmers, because they reduce bird damage and losses from some plant diseases. Sunflowers also produce latex, and are the subject of experiments to improve their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic rubber.Traditionally, several Native American groups planted sunflowers on the north edges of their gardens as a "fourth sister" to the better known three sisters combination of corn, beans, and squash.[18] Annual species are often planted for their allelopathic properties.However, for commercial farmers growing commodity crops, the sunflower, like any other unwanted plant, is often considered a weed. Especially in the Midwestern US, wild (perennial) species are often found in corn and soybean fields and can have a negative impact on yields.Sunflowers can be used in phytoremediation to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove caesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond after the Chernobyl disaster,and a similar campaign was mounted in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Uploaded
March 29th, 2014
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Viewed 1,219 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/19/2024 at 10:49 PM
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Comments (30)
Don Columbus
Congratulations, your work is Featured in "Photographic Camera Art" I invite you to place it in the group's "2020 Featured Image Archive" Discussion!! L/Tweet!
Patrick Keller
Too new to the site to cast a vote in the Sunflower competition, but wanted you to know that you'd have mine! Beautiful work.
Randy Rosenberger
Congratulations on your being chosen to have your artwork Featured on the homepage of the Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery group. It is with pride and joy that I can share this beautiful piece of artwork with the FAA art community. Thanks for sharing. Randy B. Rosenberger (admin of WFS group)
Sarah Rachel
OH GORGEOUS!!!! I'm going to show my sister this, she's obsessed with sunflowers! Amazing work, so stunning L/F
Kathy Bassett
Wonderful to have Sunflower Montage featured in your Images That Excite You group, John!!